


Bidaai

by avani



Series: The Nidhana 'Verse [4]
Category: Baahubali (Movies)
Genre: F/M, MiM Treat, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 00:07:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13135026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avani/pseuds/avani
Summary: Mahendra and his mother discuss weddings, farewells, and families.





	Bidaai

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fiera94](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fiera94/gifts).



When he considers his actions from the advanced age of six and three quarters, Mahendra must admit that his behavior was something like that of a baby. But it’s not entirely his fault: Aunt Lakshmi is getting married and  _ leaving _ , and Mahendra, at all of four years old, is convinced that means he’ll never see her again. As it turns out, she’s only moving a few houses away, and he will still be able to see her every day--but how is he to know?

So it is not entirely surprising that he insists on going with Mother to visit Aunt Lakshmi the night before the wedding.

“Oh, Mahendra,” Mother says despairingly, to the accompaniment of his sniffles. “The ceremony is meant only for women.”

“Shall we make sure the machines in the quarries are where we left them?” offers Father. “I know you’ve wanted to see them more closely.”

“I want,” Mahendra corrects, “to see Aunt Lakshmi.” He can’t imagine why Mother and Father don’t seem to understand the gravity of the situation. Who but Aunt Lakshmi will have time to run and play with him when Mother and Father are busy? Who but Aunt Lakshmi will make sure he’s able to eat something that isn’t only halfway cooked or outright charred?

“He’s young enough,” Mother says at last, helpless. “I’m sure it won’t make any difference.”

And so Mahendra gets to dress up in his best clothes and go with Mother to the house that will now be Aunt Lakshmi’s home instead of their own, leaving Father behind. In the darkness, it seems even further away than it ever did before, and Mahendra feels his heart sink. He tries explaining this to Mother, but she only laughs.

“Sometimes a bit of distance is a good thing,” she says with a grin. “Particularly when one’s newly wed.”

That doesn’t make any sense at all, and so Mahendra ignores it. Instead he asks: “Must everyone get married?”

“Not everyone,” says Mother.

That doesn’t do him much good. “Must  _ I _ get married?”

Mother lets out a surprised laugh. “If you wish to,” she replies. “Someday.”

“I don’t wish to,” Mahendra assures her vehemently. “Not at all. Not if being married means you have to leave your family.”

He wishes Aunt Lakshmi didn’t have to get married. He wishes no one at all had to get married and go away from the home that they loved. 

When he looks up, Mother is frowning. “Mahendra--” she begins, but the door to Lakshmi’s new cottage opens all too soon and she can’t continue. Inside, the cottage is warm and full of light, and everyone is singing and laughing. Mahendra almost wishes they shared his dark mood, the better to appreciate what a tragedy Aunt Lakshmi’s departure will be for him, but he settles for the fact that no one seems to mind that he has come along with Mother. 

He pads over to Aunt Lakshmi’s side where she sits in her fine new embroidered sari, and puts his arms around her as is his habit. “Must you get married?” he asks plaintively. 

Unlike everyone else, she understands him at once. That is part of why he loves Aunt Lakshmi so. “I’m afraid I must,” she explains. “Shivesh makes me entirely too happy not to.”

Mahendra thinks about this. He will miss her terribly, but he supposes it is a sacrifice he is willing to make if she will be happy. “He had better,” he says fiercely and hugs her.

Now that his last hopes of convincing Aunt Lakshmi to see sense have been cruelly dashed, Mahendra allows himself to enjoy the festivities somewhat. There are plenty of fruits, which is nice, and flowers hang everywhere, which is nice, too. The women flock around Aunt Lakshmi, decorating her and whispering things into her ear that make her blush, and after a while, Mahendra must begin to doze, because he hears Aunt Lakshmi gasp something that sounds like: “Crown Princess, no!”

Mahendra wakes up, wondering if there’s a stranger come inside, but he must have heard wrong, because the only person by Aunt Lakshmi is Mother, who is firmly sliding a pair of gleaming golden bangles from her wrist to Aunt Lakshmi’s. They’re nice enough, Mahendra thinks blearily, but hardly worth the fuss. 

“Yes,” says Mother. “If you think, as a fellow daughter of Kuntala, I intend to let my sister go to her wedding unadorned, you are mistaken, Lakshmi.”

Aunt Lakshmi grasps Mother’s hands, looking quite overcome. “I thank you,” she manages, before her eyes well up, and Mahendra, seeing that this promises to be just as uninteresting as before, lets himself drift back to sleep. 

He wakes again in Mother’s arms, on their way back home. “Is it over?” he asks drowsily.

Mother laughs. “It is.” Her voice grows more stern. “Now, Mahendra, you aren’t to make a nuisance of yourself at the wedding tomorrow--”

Mahendra knows all of that. What interests him more is something he reasoned out before he fell asleep the second time. “What was your wedding like, Mother?” he asks. He knows she must have had one, because when the city guards pass out sweetmeats in celebration of the King’s coronation, Mother always looks cross until Father teases her that they are meant in remembrance of their marriage instead.  

“Small.” Mother smiles. “Intimate. With only those your father and I wanted to stand beside us in attendance.”

Mahendra snuggles closer. She seems quite as happy as Aunt Lakshmi had. “Good.” And then: “Were you sad to leave your family?”

Mother requires a few minutes to think about this. “Somewhat.” Mahendra thinks that doesn’t sound as confident as he would like, but he’s too sleepy to say anything more. Mother goes on, though, after a pause: “Mahendra? Should you be happier? If you had grown up with all your family around you?”

It’s his turn to consider this. Mahendra would like to be surrounded by his uncles all the time, and Aunt Sumitra, and Grandfather, and other smiling faces and warm arms that are still unknown to him, but no less beloved. He imagines it would be as full of light and warmth as Aunt Lakshmi’s ceremony earlier. He imagines he would be happy. 

But, not, he thinks, if it comes at a cost he cannot pay. He can bear losing Aunt Lakshmi, can even bear losing everyone else, as long as he needn’t lose Mother and Father. 

“No,” he says, and yawns. “I wouldn’t.”

Mother laughs. “My darling boy,” she says warmly, and kisses him on the nose. 

**Author's Note:**

> * Set, of course, a couple of years prior to Chapter 1 of "Nidhana." Mahendra refers briefly to his Aunt Lakshmi's wedding there.


End file.
